The location and movement of high value assets such as jewelry, coins and collectibles that are small, easily moved and often financed or sold on consignment are difficult to track, authenticate and audit. This is due to the fact that many retail locations where the goods are displayed and sold carry hundreds or thousands of pieces and numerous staff members may have access to the articles at any time and because of the high value and relatively small size, the articles are prone to theft. Further, due to the uncertainty in the price of gold and other precious metals, the legal ownership of the items often rests with a third party (e.g., a bank, insurer, or other entity) in order to insulate the retail establishments from wide fluctuations in the precious metals markets. These third parties must maintain some degree of certainty that the inventory of goods on hand is accurate, but rarely have the manpower or means to perform physical inspections.
As such, third-party security firms (e.g., Brinks, Wells Fargo, etc.) are often engaged to periodically visit local storefronts and perform on-site inventory audits. The use of third party auditors is due primarily to the fact that many instances of theft are done with the help of store owners or retail staff—effectively an “inside job.” It is critical, therefore, for these audits to be performed quickly and accurately, but also to ensure that the data collected at each location and sent to offsite is secure and tamper-proof.
In recent years, inventory management and control has been facilitated by the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) to identify and track goods as they pass through the supply, manufacturing and retail chains. A typical RFID system consists of three components: an antenna, a transceiver/decoder, and a transponder (referred to herein as an RFID tag, or tag). The antenna emits electromagnetic radio signals generated by the transceiver, which in turn activates the tag, thereby allowing data to be read from, or in some instances, written to the tag. In some implementations, the antenna, transceiver and decoder are integrated into a single interrogation device that may be configured as a hand-held or as a fixed-mount device.
One advantage of RFID systems is the non-contact, non-line-of-sight capability of the technology. The tags can be read through a variety of materials, such as glass, cardboard, wood, opaque plastics and other materials commonly used for the packaging and/or displaying of small valuable goods that would otherwise pose challenges to bar-code systems or other optically-read technologies. The scanning of RFID tags can also be accomplished at remarkable speeds, in most cases responding in less than one hundred milliseconds.
Installation and operational control of the various components of an RFID inventory control system is generally done on-site. Unfortunately, such a practice, coupled with the number of individuals with access to the inventory and the systems creates many opportunities to “cheat” the system. Often by the time the owner of the goods can detect a theft, it is too late. Therefore, what is needed is a technique and supporting systems that can quickly and accurately identify and track small, high-value goods in a manner that is virtually tamper-proof. Further, such systems should provide authorized individuals with remote access to real-time data related to their inventory, no matter what the location.